Vol 104, No 2 (2016)

Structural and magnetic phase transitions in NiO and MnO antiferromagnets have been studied by high-precision neutron diffraction. The experiments have been performed on a high-resolution Fourier diffractometer (pulsed reactor IBR-2), which has the record resolution for the interplanar distance and a high intensity in the region of large interplanar distances; as a result, the characteristics of both transitions have been determined simultaneously. It has been shown that the structural and magnetic transitions in MnO occur synchronously and their temperatures coincide within the experimental errors: T_str ≈ T_mag ≈ (119 ± 1) K. The measurements for NiO have been performed with powders with different average sizes of crystallites (~1500 nm and ~138 nm). It has been found that the transition temperatures differ by ~50 K: T_str = (471 ± 3) K, T_mag = (523 ± 2) K. It has been argued that a unified mechanism of the “unsplit” magnetic and structural phase transition at a temperature of T_mag is implemented in MnO and NiO. Deviation from this scenario in the behavior of NiO is explained by the quantitative difference—a weak coupling between the magnetic and secondary structural order parameters.

Silicides and sulfides of transition metals attract great attention of researchers because of a wide spectrum of interesting magnetic, electronic, and optical properties. The crystal structure of FeSi, MnSi, and CoSi silicides is P2₁3(B20), whereas FeS₂, CoS₂, and MnS₂ sulfides have a structure of pyrite Pa3. Despite the great interest in these systems and the cubic symmetry of crystals, the structure and compressibility of these compounds at high pressures are still insufficiently studied. There is a significant spread (more than a factor of two!) in the bulk modulus and its pressure derivative for a single compound. Most studies were performed under nonhydrostatic conditions. In this work, the compressibility of FeSi and MnSi silicides (at pressures up to 35 GPa) and CoS₂ sulfide (up to 22 GPa) has been studied by the X-ray diffraction method in a diamond anvil cell with the use of helium as the softest pressure-transmitting medium. The values obtained for the bulk modulus and its derivative—B = 178 ±3 GPa and B_p = 5.6 ± 0.5 for FeSi, B = 167 ± 3 GPa and B_p^' = 4.6 ± 0.5 for MnSi, and B = 94 ± 2 GPa and B_p^' = 6.9 ± 0.5 for CoS₂—can be considered as the most reliable and can be used to test numerous theoretical models. The results for the compressibility of FeSi are important for the verification of models of the Earth’s core.

On the basis of low-temperature (5 K) microphotoluminescence measurements in a wide ZnSe/ZnMgSSe quantum well, the existence of isolated quantum emitters in this heterostructure is demonstrated. Characteristically, the corresponding emission lines experience stepwise spectral shifts by a few meV on a time scale of 1–10 min. The unconventional properties of the observed emitters are explained by considering the picture of a system with a large dipole moment in the ground state, such as a single donor–acceptor pair or a similar system located near an extended defect.

It is known that preferential paths for the propagation of an electrical excitation wave in the human ventricular myocardium are associated with muscle fibers in tissue. The speed of the excitation wave along a fiber is several times higher than that across the direction of the fiber. To estimate the effect of the architecture and anisotropy of the myocardium of the left ventricle on the process of its electrical activation, we have studied the relation between the speed of the electrical excitation wave in a one-dimensional isolated myocardial fiber consisting of sequentially coupled cardiomyocytes and in an identical fiber located in the wall of a threedimensional anatomical model of the left ventricle. It has been shown that the speed of a wavefront along the fiber in the three-dimensional myocardial tissue is much higher than that in the one-dimensional fiber. The acceleration of the signal is due to the rotation of directions of fibers in the wall and to the position of the excitation wavefront with respect to the direction of this fiber. The observed phenomenon is caused by the approach of the excitable tissue with rotational anisotropy in its properties to a pseudoisotropic tissue.

It has been experimentally established that the transfer of photoelectrons from the bulk of a p-GaN (Cs,O) photocathode to vacuum is accompanied by the emission of a cascade of optical phonons. In the quantum efficiency spectrum of the p-GaN (Cs,O) photocathode, an exciton peak has been identified, indicating a significant contribution of the electron–hole interaction to the generation of free electrons in heavily doped p-GaN.

When propagating through a dispersing medium, a massive neutrino acquires an induced magnetic moment that may give rise to a helicity flip in an external magnetic field with a larger probability than that caused by the anomalous magnetic moment. This phenomenon is investigated in the framework of relativistic quantum mechanics and of the generalized Bargmann–Michel–Telegdi equation.